The Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA) is a tool developed by Greg Hanley and colleagues as "a practical means of determining the contexts and outcomes responsible for problem behaviors". Research on the IISCA with children has been encouraging and has demonstrated the practicality of the process and the effectiveness of outcomes derived from this assessment. We sought to extend this line of research by utilizing the IISCA to determine function for the problem behaviors of three adults with developmental disabilities enrolled in a day program. For all three, the IISCA led to a decent hypothesis of function and helped guide treatment development.

Poster #2: Applications of the PDC-HS and Token Economy with Human Service Staff in Three Settings

Kendall Ryndak, Christina Huse-Schrivner, Angela Craven

We utilized the PDC-HS to design interventions for different performance issues in three different human service settings serving adults with DD. Effective interventions utilizing prompting, oversight, and motivational strategies such as token economy were developed and ultimately improved staff performance in all three settings.

We utilized differential reinforcement of low levels of behavior to slowly decrease the high rates of eight different target behaviors for an adult man with autism. The DRL schedule was slowly thinned by a) decreasing the criterion number of responses per session and b) increasing session length. Initial session length was only 30 minutes, but low levels of behavior maintained even as session length increased to the full program day. Results are discussed in terms of the potential mechanisms of the decelerative effects and practical recommendations for the use of DRL in natural settings.

A common social skill deficit for adults with developmental disabilities is a restricted range of conversational topics. We used a social comparison approach to determine a) the number of different topics that typical adults regularly discuss in the workplace, and b) common workplace topics of conversation. Results of this assessment were used to guide the implementation of a simple intervention to increase conversational topics for an older woman with DD; she was able to increase her repertoire of topics beyond the normative goal.

Serious self-injury associated with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome has been notoriously hard to treat, even with traditional ABA methods, and many individuals require mechanical restraint to maintain safety. This case study will describe a simple procedure (noncontingent reinforcement/Enriched Environment) that was effective at increasing safe time out of restraint for one young man with LNS.

Poster #6: Setting generalization of a function-based intervention for three students with behavior disorders

Jon Burt

The use of function-based interventions to address the problem behavior of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) in schools is supported by an emerging evidence base. Few studies, however, have assessed the generality (i.e., the transfer of behavior change across settings, behaviors, or students) of function-based interventions for this population. Using a multiple baseline across students design, I evaluated the setting generalization of functional communication training (FCT) for three students with or at-risk for EBD. FCT yielded significant reductions in problem behavior and increased rates of appropriate attention recruitment (i.e., hand-raising) for all three participants in isolation. However, no change in behavior was observed during concurrent observations in a generalization setting. Subsequently, I introduced self-mediated physical and verbal stimuli in the generalization setting to promote skill transfer. Each student responded to the generalization programming with reduced rates of problem behavior and increased rates of hand-raising in the generalization setting. Results of the study support the use of programmed generalization strategies with function-based interventions for students with EBD.

Poster #7: The effect of cultural variables in children's literature on preschooler's engagement

This poster will describe a single case investigation of the effects of racial correspondence between preschoolers and characters within children's text on measures of engagement during shared reading activities. The authors used an alternative treatments design (ATD) to compare children's engagement across matched texts with either Black or White characters. Findings and limitations will be discussed.

Poster #8: A review of the literature on behavior management interventions for school buses

Krystal Kennedy & Seth A. King

The lack of adult supervision on school buses facilitates traffic-related injury, bullying, and other infractions. This review identified studies evaluating behavior interventions designed to improve student behaviors on school buses. Identified studies provided limited information regarding the characteristics of participants and generally assessed the effect of driver or researcher implemented reinforcement, punishment, and other management activities on the behavior of all passengers. Studies yielded modest findings and did not satisfy the most recent quality indicators of the Council of Exceptional Children. Implications for practice and future research follow a discussion of findings.

Poster #9: Effects of in vivo desensitization on aversion toward receiving a haircut in a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Kirsti J. Singer & Becky L. Nastally

Systematic desensitization treatment packages comprised of various behavioral principles such as stimulus-stimulus pairing, differential reinforcement, and shaping has proven to be effective in children with autism spectrum disorder when faced with situations involving tolerance of exposure to aversive stimuli (Cavalari, DuBard, Luiselli, & Birtwell, 2013; Cuvo, Reagan, Ackerlund, Huckfeldt, & Kelly, 2010). In the current applied intervention, we demonstrated the effect of in vivo desensitization on the challenging behavior exhibited by a young child with autism when the demand of receiving a haircut was placed. The success of the intervention was highlighted using a changing criterion design. Replications with other children and other aversive stimuli and situations are also featured.

Poster #10: Twenty-six years after the special series: Trends on reporting social validity in JABA from 1991 to 2017

Shu-Chen Tsai

Social validity plays an important role in applied behavior analysis. In 1991, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis had a special series on this topic. However, limited studies have documented the trends of reporting social validity since the 1990s. Therefore, the purpose of the proposal is to update the trends of social validity assessments reported in JABA. Specific research questions are: (a) to what extent social validity is assessed across years?; (b) what are the types of measures used?; (c) what are the dimensions of social validity assessed?; (d) who were the consumers?; and (e) what are the types of research that frequently assessed social validity? A total of 2057 articles published in JABA from 1991 to 2017 were extracted and only research articles that reported social validity were included for further analysis. Percentage and frequency will be reported. Implications for the use of social validity will also be discussed.

Using echoic prompting, a sixteen-year-old boy with autism was taught to respond to novel questions using the phrase, “I don’t know” when it was socially appropriate. This intervention used 3D objects, 2D images, and social questions to teach the learner to discriminate between Known and Unknown stimuli. There were four main phases including Isolation, Discrimination, Generalization, and Natural Environment Teaching (NET). Only Isolation Phase I began with a 0s time delay. All successive training phases employed a 5s time delay between the SD and the learner’s response. Results indicate that the “I don’t know” response successfully generalized across different trainers, novel stimuli and settings and within the natural environment. Indirect learning of correct labels for Unknown items occurred as well.

A three-year-old female with an autism diagnosis was exposed to echoic prompting paired with two reinforcement conditions in order to evaluate the rate of verbal behavior acquisition across conditions. The difference between the conditions centered on the client’s motivation. While the ‘natural reinforcement’ condition was initiated by a child-led communication board mand, the ‘contrived reinforcement’ condition was initiated by the instructor during a non-mand situation. The sounds and words in the ‘natural reinforcement’ condition corresponded with the communication board mand, and the client gained access to the manded item/activity following a correct verbal response. Dissimilarly, the sounds and words in the ‘contrived reinforcement’ condition did not correspond with any item/activity that the client and instructor were engaged in at the time. A parallel treatments design was used to compare these conditions across three tiers. The results indicated that both conditions led to verbal behavior acquisition in a similar fashion across words, yet when comparing the two sounds seen in both conditions, the ‘natural reinforcement’ condition scored the same or higher than the ‘contrived reinforcement’ condition during each session. Increased client motivation may potentially accelerate the rate of verbal behavior acquisition among children with autism.

Poster #13: Decreasing Off-Task Behaviors: The Effects of a DRO Within a Preschool Setting

Courtney McIntyre & Molly Dubuque

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can struggle with peer interactions and academic skills. This can interfere with their ability to attend certain school programs such as preschool. Preschool offers many advantages for children with ASD because it provides a safe environment to learn new skills and practice those skills. Also, a preschool environment provides many peer models which can help strengthen appropriate behaviors in children with ASD. This intervention consisted of a treatment package that included a token economy, visual feedback board, and a social narrative. A Fixed Momentary DRO (FMDRO) procedure and a Fixed Interval DRO (FIDRO) procedure were used to decrease off-task behavior in a four-year-old boy during preschool circle time. The results showed a significant decrease in off-task behavior during the FIDRO procedure. It is predicted that the FMDRO procedure could have been effective but due to the environment and lack of buy-in from staff, the intervention had to be modified into a FIDRO procedure with a resetting component.

Poster #14: Promoting mands to a peer during play: The effects of a treatment package

Maqenzi Hovious & Molly Dubuque

Individuals with Autism often struggle with social interactions with their peers of typical development. Autism is characterized by deficits in social skills and communication and excess stereotyped and repetitive behaviors. Manding is often targeted early in treatment as it directly benefits the speaker. The mand is controlled by an establishing operation and specifies the reinforcement. Children with autism often have deficient mand repertoires or will only mand to specific individuals. Increasing a child’s mand repertoire may serve as an abolishing operation for tangibly maintained problem behaviors. Additionally, manding is a behavior that is valued by teachers, classmates and family members. A concurrent multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of video modeling, prompting and reinforcement in the acquisition of mands for play items in order to complete an activity. The participants included a 4-year-old boy diagnosed with autism and a 4-year-old boy of typical development. Data indicate that the intervention successfully increased mands for both boys and the results maintained during a 3-week follow-up probe.

Poster #15: The use of video prompting, video modeling, and written instructions to teach the skill of doing laundry

Samantha Shockley & Brandon Franklin

Individuals with brain disorders may often struggle in the area of daily living or functional skills. The ability to perform these skills can lead to more independence in everyday life, as well as more positive relationships with caregivers and peers. Video modeling and video prompting are two methods of instruction that have gained substantial acknowledgement in the area of teaching daily living and functional skills. This protocol focused on implementing both video prompting and video modeling, followed by the use of written instructions to teach the skill of washing and drying laundry to an adult with Static Encephalopathy.The results of this protocol have shown that a video prompting procedure using the “My Pictures Talk” application was successful in teaching the task of doing laundry to an older adult male with Static Encephalopathy. The results also suggest that although the participant did not reach 100% performance during the video modeling phase, fading from a video prompting to a video modeling procedure was effective in maintaining high levels of performance of the laundry task.

Individuals with developmental disabilities often demonstrate deficits in daily living skills. When these deficits are comprehensive, the individual may not be able to complete household chores, such as washing dishes. Failure to complete such tasks may increase health risks through potential increased exposure to unsanitary conditions. In addition, the inability to complete daily living tasks may limit an individual’s independence and have a negative impact on his or her quality of life. The effectiveness of the use of two different protocols (video prompting and picture prompting) by two different treatment providers (ABA staff and day program staff) was considered in instructing an adult female with autism and a mild intellectual disability to wash a cup. Data from both interventions indicate an increase in independent steps completed and a decrease in the number of additional prompts needed to wash cups. Video prompting was more effective than the picture prompting for teaching washing dishes with this client.